An online magazine exploring and learning a 15th century art form

Flower Bowl

May 7, 2010

Quite a while ago I had written that the art of parchment craft is not just for cards. Today, I would like to share with you a project I just completed to demonstrate just a little of the versatility of this art.

Like many parchment enthusiasts, I have a file folder that has been filling up with projects that I would like to do. You may have heard the adage, so many patterns, so little time. I think just about every parchment craft enthusiast I know has complained about that at one time or another!

One of those projects sitting in my Want-To-Do folder, was a pattern by Hiska Wittenaar. While her version of her pattern was done in white-work, I felt, that for me, this pattern was calling out for some color.

Just a wee little bit of color, mind you! I did leave the motifs at the top of each section of the bowl in white-work.

This little project also gave me an opportunity to practice with the pinturas, or acrylic paints. Actually, on the flowers, I used pinta perla white and violet pintura. The trick with the acrylic paints is to pick up only a tiny bit on your brush. The idea is that you don’t want the paint so thick that you can’t see through the parchment paper.

This may be more evident with my leaves, and also with the centers of the flowers, on a slightly darker photo.

The peony’s in my garden are just opening up, so I stuck one that was blooming behind the bowl so that you can get an idea of the exact size of the finished project. One of my smaller varieties of lilacs is also there.

A designer may use specific colors in pencil, inks, felt-tips or paints in their pattern, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Just as you can use different colors or coloring techniques, you can make a pattern in plain white-work.

I hope that this little project will give you some ideas of what you can create.